Dante's Haunted Memories
by RenosEMR
Summary: Family, can't live with them, without them or shoot them away. Dante is forced into an allegiance with his brother, Nero tags along only to find that the initial rescue plan was a ploy to get them into the horrific Silent Hill...
1. Chapter 1

"_No matter what you must hide!" The voice broke through the deepest peaceful sleep. "Listen to me, Dante. No matter what!"_

It was the same thing every night for the past few weeks and he woke up in the bed sweating as he sat upright and looked around. Why? Why did that memory have to return now? He'd done the right thing, stopped his brother from opening the underworld to the mortals. Light was in the right place above the ground and yet… something just felt wrong.

"Go back to sleep." Trish muttered beside him and turned over.

Dante looked over at her, she couldn't understand or maybe, he snorted, she wouldn't care too anyway. She didn't share the curse of human emotions that he did, Vergil saw it as a cancerous growth eating into the value of his true calling. Devil hunter Dante was wasting his time using the love of a mother and the care of the humans when he could be so very strong. Dante lay back on the bed and sighed…

He closed his eyes, it was a mistake, and drifted back off to where the dream had left off. He noted with some annoyance in his semi-conscious state that for some reason the good dreams never did that. He could have been dreaming of a harem, hot chicks with massage oils, that never drifted back oh no, if you were going to pick up where you left off it had to be a bad thing.

"_Is she dead? All of them?" Dante heard the voices shouting around him. As a child he was limited and he sat in the cover he had, one hand gripping at an amulet and the other around the sword. _

"_Vergil." He whispered, where was his twin? _

"_Yes we've killed them all." Another demon muttered to the companions. He lifted the head of Eva and then looked down at the boy. "Well that was easier than I thought considering he should have the power of his father."_

_Dante shivered from the hiding place and closed his eyes, tears streaming down his cheeks as they lifted the boy from his fallen place. His brother, Vergil, had been caught and ran down as their mother became the reason they had surfaced. She had managed to warn the youngest of the twins but it had been too late for her. _

"_Do you think he'll be able to undo the seals?" One of them looked around at the splattered gore around the room and threw the head to the side; it bounced close to the survivor. "Well time will tell let's go." _

_The demons disappeared taking the child's body with them and Dante put his hands over his ears, closed his eyes and wailed. _

Trish heard the yell and jumped up with her hand reaching to her gun on the side of the bed. Dante was sweating as he opened his eyes and realised he'd come out of the dream with the same energy as he'd suffered it. Trish had her gun and Dante looked at her.

"If you want sex threatening me with a weapon isn't the usual method." He looked at her.

"I thought something had broken in the place." She shrugged. "Besides I wouldn't have to try to get you to attention. Apart from fighting and food you seem interested in only one thing."

"You make me sound so shallow." He snorted wandering through and turning the shower on in the bathroom. Trish watched his walk through with appreciation as muscles rippled with every step. "Guess I must be." He shut the door and stepped into the hot water.

Trish yawned and slid down the stairs into the DMC building, she poured them both a red wine from the side. She heard a slight rustle of movement behind her and turned, her gun trained to the forehead of the demon that had tried to break into the place.

"Get out, you're interfering in 'me' time." Trish cocked the gun back then looked at it. Something about the demon annoyed her, she was a creation of Mundus and it held a similar feel to it. "Did you just send that nightmare?"

"I was there!" The demon smirked. "On that night, we all had a jolly good time… her corpse made for a wonderful ni…"

"Say goodbye." Trish shot him in the forehead square through the middle of his eyes. The blood splashed back and Trish looked down, oh great now she needed a shower too. "Oh well," she left the body to dissipate and headed up with the glasses, she walked into the bathroom and set them down. "Dante 'darling' you might like to know that you might be getting those dreams for a reason."

"Yeah well they got a beef with the old man they can talk to him..." He turned and looked at her. "Unless that is strawberry flavoured body paint this is disappointing."

"Oh ha…" She slide into the shower and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Sadly not but I can probably give you a sweet treat later. Are you going to investigate this one?"

"Well I guess I might since these nightmares are eating into valuable I don't give a crap time."

Trish laughed a little and continued to clean up. He was a strange one and sometimes she did have to wonder if he didn't just keep her around because she looked a hell of a lot like his mother. She didn't really dwell on it as she got out and took up her glass, lips closing over the glass and finally as he turned around she winked at him and slipped back into the bedroom.

When Dante got up the next day he was annoyed that he'd not slept enough and that Trish had continued to keep him up throughout the night with incessant banter instead of an honest screw. Packing his weapons he headed out to the graveyard, the old stone with Eva's name on it under the tree looked undisturbed, it put his mind at rest partially at any rate.

"You are suffering them too I see?" A familiar voice said stepping out from the trees.

"Vergil?" Dante looked at him surprised. He had… he had fallen to hell and Dante had even given the younger lad Nero his sword, Yamato. He looked at him amazed for a moment then his hand slid behind his jacket ready to take his guns out.

"Don't waste your time little brother." Vergil looked at him. "I fear this time we might have a common enemy."

"Get talking." Dante looked at him. "Why do you care anyway?"

"I don't." He shrugged. "I'm just annoyed that the solace of sleep has been disturbed. Let me guess," his lips curled half-snarl and half-amused, "it's upset you."

"Whatever." Dante looked at him. "What do you want? I'm going to get breakfast." He slid his hands to his trouser pockets and headed past him. "You wanna fix the problem I don't care why just do it."

"We both have too." Vergil looked at him with a smug grin. "Isn't being half of something just a bitch?"


	2. Chapter 2

They sat in the diner, Dante had ordered up the usual of pizza and coffee… Vergil sighed, junk food again. He picked at the toast and watched him. They had fought but there was still some strange respect between them. Vergil refused to accept that the bond should be termed love, after all these years and Dante chose not to bring any past subject up unless it had to be done.

"You seem to turn up with more of a clue about this than me, so shoot…" Dante shrugged at him, Vergil grimaced at the term.

"Hell is missing one of the demons; that is why we are getting these strange dreams."

"Nightmares."

"Dreams little brother," Vergil snorted, "don't tell me some dreams about demons are scaring you? I hardly see you as the type that needs to sleep with the light on."

"If they are… upsetting," he shoved the slice in his mouth and swallowed, "then they are nightmares."

"At any rate, the reason we are getting them is that some moron in hell let out one of the lieutenants, one of father's little hidden gems."

"Is it on the mortal world?" Dante finally looked at him, Vergil better not be getting any clever ideas.

"Yes and no." Vergil waited until he finished his irritating coffee slurp, even the way his little brother did simple things could piss him off. "The problem is that it's more of a middle ground. The world looks mortal but holds one of the hidden gates to Hell. When mortal's slip into the place concerned it can be for reasons only known to the higher gods I guess…"

"So how does this affect us?" Dante finished his pizza.

"Well the one that they let out they sent to this place. The problem is that he's a little… changed for it. I'd say for the worse but you'd probably say it was a good thing. The young demon is basically a clean slate of naïve, no concept of right or wrong, he simply exists. The demon was sent out into this other world by some of dad's old enemies because they assumed it would give them a better chance to attack. All it's done is left a rift between Hell, here and the town the things now stuck in."

"So if we put him back does he go back to being some evil thing I gotta knock back into a prison?" Dante mumbled.

"No I think if we can just get him out of the town it will mean the rift closes, what happens after that I don't know. The most important part is to stop the place becoming an open gateway."

"And why are you so interested in being the good guy all of a sudden?" Dante snorted.

"The idiots that are trying to take control are on about summoning up dad," Vergil looked at him. "That means you and I get called back down, if they could find him and tried to pop him off for good we might end up with even more problems on our hands."

"No one has managed it yet." Dante shrugged, he finished his coffee and stood up. "Though I guess if you decided to turn up it must be serious. Where are we going?"

"Well I'd like my sword back." Vergil grunted, Yamato was his baby damn it.

"Sorry but that's with another hunter and the punk will just want to come along if I take his toy off him." Dante smirked. Then again it was someone else capable of taking out Vergil with him. "He's gonna want it back at the end."

"We'll deal with that when it comes up then." Vergil stated. "Let's get him and we'll talk about what we need to do. Who is this "punk" then?"

"His name is Nero, he's a young hunter. " Dante looked at him. "And he's pretty good, just needs to learn not to be so lip-sure with me."

"Yeah pot-kettle and all that." Vergil laughed as they walked back into the town and Dante headed into the DMC. Vergil wasn't a fan of the place but it meant they could at least get a base together. Trish regarded him with mild interest as she flipped through a glossy-paged fashion magazine.

Dante rang Nero, who by his estimation had probably ended up with a late night, the kid yawned his way through the conversation and more than once he put the phone down to struggle into clothes or to avoid dropping it in the sink as he made coffee. Dante felt it best not to question whether Kyrie and him had actually sorted their act out, seemingly the honeymoon period was over per-say and the constant drive of battle from the new hunter was starting to get her more irate about lack of time together blah, blah…

"Where are we going?" Nero yawned, downing a strong coffee.

"Not entirely sure just know the basics as I told you." Dante looked at Vergil who was going over the collected weaponry behind him. "So can you come along? One snag, my brother is asking for Yamato."

Nero spat coffee over the desk, Vergil? Vergil wasn't even supposed to be around, he'd heard enough from Dante to know that whilst there was some odd link between them the other twin seemed to be nothing but bad omens and power trips. Dante put the phone down and looked at Trish, she was making a pointed effort to keep out of it. Something about that was amusing him too; she hadn't even seen fit to try to wind him up.

"Is he coming?" Vergil flipped open an old book, he smirked, a trash novel about some demonic cult or other. Dante had scrawled notes on the side that made a two year old's handwriting look like a Doctorate.

"Yeah, now are you gonna tell me where we are actually going?" Dante holstered Ebony and Ivory along with Rebellion and a few other choice weapons. "And do I need Pandora?"

"Take her if you want," Vergil looked at him, "Ever heard of Silent Hill?"


	3. Chapter 3

"Silent Hill?" Dante looked at Vergil. "No sounds like some dodgy computer game if you ask me."

Vergil merely chuckled and threw him an old newspaper clipping from his jacket pocket. Trish continued to listen impassively in the background as Vergil told him that from what they gathered in the libraries from Hell the whole place had been opened up by zealous cultists. Now fires raged under the town, the town itself was cut off from the rest of the mortal population, sometimes people strayed through without incident but the town would on occasion draw people into it.

"So this demon has the run of the place?" Dante looked at him.

"No, there's numerous reported nasties there but we need him sorted out, if his only idea of what the human world is like is the nightmare town then if he should escape to the place you care for so much it will just get worse." Vergil yawned, he spotted Nero coming over, hands in pockets with Yamato at the side and his beloved Red Queen on his back. "That your kid?"

"Well not my kid in the literal sense." Dante snorted as he opened the door, Nero walked in, did a double take and finally let his eyes fall to Dante. "Hey Nero, you already to kick butt for the sake of goodness?"

"I'm ready to kick butt." Nero said bluntly, he threw Yamato over to Vergil and then

The three headed out, Trish made a comment under her breath about them being more trouble then the entire town and then they were gone. The three men stood by the cathedral at Fortuna and Vergil slashed at the air, opening the gate to the other reality before shoving the two younger half-breed's through. Dante landed face down on concrete with Nero on top of him.

"Warn me next time you idiot!" Nero stumbled up to his feet.

"Me the idiot?" Vergil snorted as he carried on down the road. "What makes you say that?"

"Becau…" Dante did not have time to react past that, as a large oil truck ran straight into the three of them knocking them all unconscious.

When Nero came to his senses the other two were still out cold, and naked… Nero stood up and realised he was in the same position. They were in a cell with a box, some old robes and the only light was coming from an old bulb that seemed to be on its last resources. Nero grabbed a robe and shoved it on before waking up the other two. He shoved the robes to the two brothers and broke the lock on the box with the demonic hand.

"Neat trick." Vergil muttered as he sat up, he pulled the robes on and looked around the room.

"Sod the tricks I want my weapons… my coat… aww damn it I had money in my wallet for once." Dante complained as he looked at the locked door.

Vergil ignored his brother and looked into the box, there wasn't really much to go by but a torch and a gun with one live round in it. Vergil instinctively passed it to Dante, refusing to go near the thing and then joined them at the doorway. Dante put his foot to it and kicked with raw power, the door merely shook as though he'd tried the handle. Nero moved them back and punched it with his devil bringer, again nothing happened.

"Wonderful, seems we have to apply the random laws of human physics to things…" Vergil grumbled. "Dante shoot the lock."

Dante didn't like the idea of the one decent round they had being wasted on the door but they needed out. He shot at the lock and the handle slipped to the floor, Nero put it on the shelf on the side and stepped out into a corridor that had seen better days. The stench of mould and decay hit their noses, it wasn't the worst thing any of them had encountered but it didn't appeal.

"This looks like a hospital or something." Vergil looked at the long winding, old ceramic tiled walls and began to move on. "If we search around we might be able to find our property."

"Hope so I feel damned naked without my guns." Dante grumbled. "And I look good naked but this isn't cool."

"Does he ever shut up?" Nero looked at Vergil.

"Not that I recall…" Vergil chuckled a little, the smile ended as they got into what looked like a large shower room. Patients would have been rounded up daily to stand in there as water cascaded down, it looked depressing as hell.

Dante hadn't bothered to look around at it; his eyes had already centred on a strange mass of flesh in the centre of the room. It wasn't really breathing, but something was happening. The cool blue eyes of the demon watched what looked like a gigantic worm writing in the guttering of the floor. Evidently from the look on Nero's face it wasn't his imagination either.

"Gross." Nero muttered, it reminded him of too many things he'd seen trying to rescue Kyrie… "Do we kill it?"

"What with?" Dante looked at him. "Cos I am not getting my hands, or claws, into that thing."

Vergil mumbled and summoned up the blue swords around him, they darted into the body of the strange looking thing. The swords ripped through muscle, flesh and viscera until finally the whole thing exploded around the shower walls. It was only the fact of a pillar near Nero that he didn't end up covered in the stuff like the two brothers.

"Happy now?" Vergil looked over, flicking the mess from his face.

"Oh overly." Dante snorted as they headed towards the door at the far end. A light flickered from behind it and Nero growled his annoyances internally. "There better be my guns or something the other side, this place is foul, filthy and where the hell do I get dinner?"

"Oh good we're back to food." Vergil looked at the young hunter coming towards them, Nero simply shrugged. "Some things never change."


	4. Chapter 4

They ended up stood outside a rather moderate looking reception area, advertising itself as Cedar Grove Sanatorium. Dante rang the small bell on the counter, then again and again until finally Nero got fed up and blasted the thing with his Devil Bringer. It sparked another round of bitching from the two and Vergil sat in the corner and flipped through a leaflet slowly.

"Why are you wasting your time ringing a damned bell, its clear no one is gonna come along." Nero griped.

"The noise amused me." Dante folded his arms. "Calm down kid."

"Kid? Are you even aware of how childish you can be?" Nero's face darkened. Vergil flipped through another page of a booklet on the local sites of Silent Hill. "There are no patients, no doctors… you are wasting time."

Dante just smirked and opened a door with brute force, it looked like the door handle was pretty flimsy but everyone knew the strength they had. Nero pushed past him, and looked around. They could have searched high and low for keys but it seemed pretty pointless when it was likely they would be arrested, and with the three of them arrest would hardly be easy.

Nero opened a set of cupboards and old wardrobe finally finding their missing clothes and weaponry. He threw Yamato over to Vergil with the bundle of blue and black material. Vergil nodded his thanks and slid into his own clothes, he threw the robe at his brothers' head and looked around, they needed to get out of the place and start looking around.

"I have a list of places we can investigate, we can split up to make this faster but we're gonna have to make a base to meet at regular intervals." Vergil pointed at the map, he found a pen and some card and wrote down the places he had.

"Who put you in charge?" Dante muttered as he kitted back up.

"Well you would just have us steal a car and search for pizza." Vergil handed Nero a list. "I figured you'd be okay with the Cemetery and Police station."

"Yeah I can do that." Nero nodded; he made a mental note of the directions from the visitors map on the wall. "How long before we meet up?"

"Let's say an hour for each place, we likely won't need it." Dante said heading to the door. "That or meet when it gets dar…"

Dante opened the door and groaned, there was no way to work out day and night time with what looked to be a big mass of fog over the town. Nero snickered and headed past him then stopped as his boots connected with dust… no not dust or snow? He leant down in surprise and moved his fingers through the strange powder.

"It's ash." Nero looked at them both. "The whole town is covered in ash." He picked up an old paper from the front of an ambulance that had been left, Nero failed to question why the siren continued to whir the light around long after the fuel and battery were gone. "It says here that the residents were evacuated when the city set on fire."

"So how long ago was that?" Vergil moved towards him to take a look. He grumbled his annoyance when it turned out that the date on the top of the paper was unreadable. "Well let's assume it was a while back at any rate."

"Meet in three hours? Where?" Nero looked at the twins.

"The front of Grand Hotel? Seems like that's the easiest middle ground." Dante nodded and then headed out; ignoring the fact he was likely to end up covered in the strange ash. "So I get an amusement park and theatre?"

"Yes." Vergil stepped out, watching booted steps crush the strange layer under their feet.

"What did you get?" Nero looked at Vergil.

"The Town Hall for records, and the Shopping Mall." He looked at Dante's anger flare up, the blue eyes flashed red. "Brother if you go we'll end up getting nowhere fast."

"Humph." Dante headed out into the street, he hated it when his brother was right. "This is likely to end in disaster you know that…" He continued mumbling to himself until the three had finally split up and headed along on their own.

############

In the darkest recesses of the old school the noise of padded feet wandering around the dark corridor went unheard, the demon was bored. The place only came alive at night, during the day all he seemed to find was the odd corpse and rumours of a bunch of very odd survivors, he hadn't seen them if they did exist.

"Boreds." PJ muttered, he picked up a rotted old pink rabbit, shock it around. "I fink I seen you somewhere afores…" He pocketed it and carried on around the empty building.

PJ had learnt only the very basics of the English language, he spoke it dismally but he thought he was doing okay. He wasn't stupid but he was certainly childish, and Robbie the Rabbit ended up his new playmate. He'd found that trying to interact with the monsters there resulted in him having to butcher them in fights.

He flopped down in the corner of the schools toilets, kicking open a door and seeing a rather emaciated corpse strung up in the cubicle. PJ touched it, it was not moving, he sighed, he just didn't see how the place was all that exciting, why did they want him summoned if they weren't going to tell him what they wanted?


	5. Chapter 5

"Blah, blah stupid brother." Dante muttered as he came up to the theatre house and looked around. The whole place bored him already, no people around and no demons to fight. Ah yes and more important he wasn't earning money!

If you were to ask Vergil or Nero they'd probably tell you the half-breed had issues with his attention span. Dante just preferred to enjoy life to its fullest, he saw no point in slowing down, why read a book on defusing a bomb when sitting on it did the trick?

The theatre was well shut down, the metal grids in front of the windows made sure it was obvious no one should be inside. Dante had never paid attention to such things and used the wall to scale up on to the roof. Stood on the top he noted he could see nothing of use, the ash in the sky made it impossible to see past a few yards, the only reason the edge of the roof was seen was because he was stood on it.

With a further grumble he found the maintenance entrance and slid down on to the top floor. The theatre was pitch- black inside, that never really bothered him though, he flicked the torch on and walked along the top beams of the stage.

"Welcome, one and all!" A large booming voice made Dante jump, he nearly slid off the edge but he caught the beam with one hand. Ebony skittered onto the main stage and Dante dropped down safely ready to get her. "Ah the main act! The demon known as Dante will now perform…"

Dante looked around, on any day of his choosing he was a damned good show off. He liked to dance, play music and flirt but somehow this didn't strike him as any of those things. A gloved hand reached out to collect Ebony but an unseen force grabbed the gun and pushed him back, the red coat twisted with the demon as he landed on his feet, one hand stopping him skidding back too far.

"What the hell is going on?" He yelled out hoping for an answer. Who had just announced him? Exit Stage Right was Dante's plan of action only he glanced that way, on the wings of the stage black misshapen humanoids in what looked like straight-jackets made from their own skins lumbered towards him.

He again stood up, only this time he got to his gun, both Ebony and Ivory were pulled out to the front, arms extended and then Dante let rip with both barrels. A shower of shells rang out, the bullets materialising as fast as the son of Sparda could fire. The reason he loved his girls so much, they knew him and knew how he worked.

The strange beasts moved forwards, drawn by the light from the torch to the prey, alongside that came another unseen force. PJ, he heard the noise and using the same entrance on the roof leant over and watched as Dante shot down the aggressors. He watched as Dante ploughed through the creatures, the demon's tail flapped around on the top of the beam.

PJ looked ultimately far different to Dante, Dante was like his father, white haired and human looking until he used a devil trigger. PJ could not hide his looks without actively concentrating, he had been created as a shape shifter but his natural form had horns around long white hair that resembled a ram's, slightly clawed hands and a long tail with a barb on the end that swished around depending on his mood.

When the crowd of creatures were nothing more than blood smears on the dark wooden floor of the stage the son of Sparda looked around. He could sense another demon but with the strange atmosphere in the place he could not manage to locate him exactly. Dante put his guns back, wondering what had kicked him when he saw a strange illumination down the middle aisle.

It looked like the cages they put around the old asylum patients; whatever ghost was hidden inside still carried its grotesque trophy. Dante shuddered, despite his origins being trapped as some angry spirit with no body would no doubt piss off even the nicest of people.

"Always a critic in the audience." Dante mumbled as he walked towards it, the strange thing flung around and attempted to knock Dante off his feet, he wasn't fooled a second time. "Get a grip." He mumbled, his shotgun swung from the back of his coat where it hung, to the front in his hands, he blasted the thing into oblivion once more, the head-cage span in the air briefly before falling to the ground.

Dante flicked the guns back into their respective holsters; he took another look around the place, and sighed. Silent Hill sucked! Sucked giant balls of suckiness and all he wanted now was pizza followed by a decent strawberry sundae… Vergil might well have trapped them here on purpose; the sudden thought annoyed him more.

"You can come out you know." He called to the demon he could hear. "I am not gonna pop you off unless you start on me first."

PJ watched him, the ragged pink stuffed toy in one hand, he wanted to talk to him but then again he wondered if that was safe. PJ didn't know what to do, he considered just landing and ripping the person apart, but this one had wiped out as many of the strange monsters as he could.

He didn't really think that the other man would talk to him either; he just picked up guns and fired blindly at anything that moved. In fact now he thought about it, he really didn't like the man at all, he was loud, arrogant and he was probably going to try and kill him, the young demon muttered to Robbie about this and then slid back out of the building.

Dante checked the rest of the place, grumbled about the popcorn having turned to dust and then checked the map, it was time to try the amusement park. Somehow he doubted that it was truly going to amuse him in the traditional sense but at least he could see how big the Ferris wheel was.


	6. Chapter 6

Nero headed towards the Police Station, the ash was already annoying him, getting into his hood and then to make matters worse he had a problem with the sound it made under his boots. Every step he took seemed to echo and a few times down the lonely walk he was convinced he had been followed, only to turn and see nothing.

"This place is boring." Nero muttered to himself.

He passed a police station, the lights were no longer functioning and the old metal sign from the front swung on rusty hinges making a grating noise that went right through his spine. Nero shuddered, he moved to the front door, hearing shuffling inside he chose to listen for a moment.

He couldn't make out if they were hostile or not and so with one hand on the trusted blade he managed to slide a window up and sneak in. The office he landed in had been made into a barricade at some point, sadly the things on the other side had easily ran through the filing cabinet, bin and computer stacked up hastily. Under the remnants of the barricade an arm protruded, bits had been eaten off and picked at as the creatures fed on the bits they could easily reach.

Nero stepped out into the corridor; he caught a fleeting glimpse as a humanoid shape ran towards the lower prison area. He walked down confidently; everything he had seen so far had been easy to take out anyway. To be sure he dropped his gun into his hand ready to fire.

PJ had found the cells safer to use for sleeping in, the Asylum scared him and the hotel had too many straggling humans. Unsure of what he should do with the ones that tried to talk he found it easier to avoid everything. Robbie was delicately put on the side because he was going to find stuff to clean him up tomorrow anyway and he hadn't really got anything else he'd liked enough to claim as his own.

Nero broke down the metal grid between the lower prison area for holding cells and the main station. There were enough cells to hold about eight people but Nero was more interested in the only one with the door open. The rest had remained locked even with no power running through, why had only the one door opened?

PJ had been happily snoozing in the cell when he heard the gate being ripped apart, he'd not encountered anything as strong as himself, well the strange pyramid head thing but he'd ran from that. He slid under the bed, concentrated on being invisible and waited. He didn't like what he saw either, the white hair and red clothes meant he had to be with that other gun toting moron! They must be coming to take his hiding places and he didn't like that.

"Hello?" Nero yelled, even if the entire station came alive with zombies he was rather confident he could take them out. "Hey!"

Nero spotted the rabbit on the side, Robbie was picked up, PJ spotted his hand was a demonic one. Unlike the last man this one didn't seem to hide his demonic traits as well, Nero's arm glowed a soft blue indicating another devil's presence. He looked around to try and find it but PJ had no intention of coming forwards, well except for the reason he wanted his teddy back.

Nero sighed; discarding the dog-eared teddy on the bed he stepped out and looked around. PJ was annoyed that Robbie hadn't been put back carefully so he slid out behind him and grabbed it, Nero smirked, he could hear him moving even if he couldn't see him. His hand flashed out, bright blue energy and then PJ was pinned to the back of the cell wall.

PJ's instant reaction was to yell out loudly, his black leathery wings came out, his defences kicking in as tendrils burst out of his sides lashing at Nero wildly. The horns on his head and razor sharp fangs took Nero completely back. He hadn't seen a full trigger without any warning at all in a while, the eyes had not flashed the typical red, instead one blue eye and one purple eye glowed in stark contrast to the rest of the darkening skin.

"What the…" Nero looked at him, his grip relaxing.

"Get off!" PJ grumbled and slide out of his grasp, the wings came back in and the tendrils flipped around angrily but didn't threaten to attack him. "Get off me, get out!"

"Out?" Nero looked at him. "We're here to find you, I'm sorry if I scared you."

"Scared?" PJ scoffed and picked up the rabbit. "You didn't scare me, you came where you are not wanted. Get out, leave this place it's not yours."

Nero was about to speak again when the demon disappeared leaving only a rank smell of sulphur behind him. Nero sighed and looked around, he was happy to vacate the place but he couldn't go back and tell them he had let the thing get away.

The broken corpse of the police officer had one more secret to offer up as Nero passed him, kicking at an empty can in frustration. The officer's old badge fell to the floor as the corpse animated and stumbled that way. Nero turned in time to see it as the damned thing grabbed at his arm and bit in. Nero was no stranger to pain but the raw bite into his soft flesh caused him to yell out, he pushed violently against it until the walking corpse landed on the wall opposite.

Nero covered the wound with his hand as he shot at the creature, not waiting to see if the one bullet was enough he emptied a tirade of six before pausing to see the effect. It slumped to the ground and the descendent of Sparda left through the window as quickly as he had arrived.

Silent Hill wasn't on his top list of holiday spots and he was sure as hell not staying to see more of the attractions if they were like this!


	7. Chapter 7

Vergil wandered towards the Town Hall, he took his time and watched as ash settled on the benches around them. Vergil had done his homework before reaching the town of Silent Hill. Neither Dante or Nero understood the concept of the place, Vergil did, and it was for his reason he really saw no rush to get out, if Hell was here and he'd already spent most his life in hell there was little difference.

"If I am brutally honest this is mild." He muttered as he passed a corpse half strewn from the rear of an ambulance. "Everything is dead, insane or monstrous." He watched a raven land and pick at the ash, trying to burrow into the ground and get a worm, nothing new for his eyes, he mused.

The Town Hall was abandoned, and showed signs of having been vandalised. Vergil looked at the notes he'd made, the town hall had been looted alongside a fair few of the shops. Whatever of the community here was left, they relied on scavenging during daylight hours. The night was a no go area, sirens would sound, the place would descend into raw nightmarish lands. Vergil smirked, that sounded like the best time to hunt in his view.

Stepping through the half open doors of the front of the Town Hall he passed the notice boards. The glass had turned to a tinged yellow and the papers where it had cracked or the wood had been damp were moulded. A layout of the town hall was in one, Vergil punched the glass, it shattered to the floor with an echo on the marble floor and he took the map for reference.

The Town Hall looked untouched save the outside damage; he walked down the hallway to see old portraits of former mayors. The main room where the last mayor was before the town was deserted stood with the phone messages still flashing, the computer plugged in but turned off and a small desk lamp that illuminated a diary.

Vergil sat in the chair and flipped through several pages worth, it was all mundane to do with various visitors and other expected things for a mayor. He looked at the last entry and noted that it was from several years ago, when he was younger Vergil loved to walk around the abandoned halls of his fathers castle, it was a desolate part of hell and he would enjoy the peace that came with it.

When he heard a strange shuffling from behind the wall he had to admit it held his curiosity. Dante's twin moved to the wall, his hand ran over the smooth material as he sought to find the weakness in the wall, his hand rested on an area that felt warmer, he was about to use his sword to cut it through but the creature burst out anyway.

It looked the size of a child but if it had been once the thing had been mutated beyond recognition. It's limbs hung limply to the sides but the bloodied claws at the end showed they were not as harmless as they looked, it's legs were short which caused a waddle, had it not been attached to such a sickly looking thing it might have been almost comical.

"What the…" Vergil watched as it lurched towards him, Vergil's natural fight instinct kicked in. His trademark blue swords came up above him, hell's own power played through them and ripped through the sinewy tissue of the hideous creature before him, Vergil listened to it's unnatural screams with very little compassion for what it had once been, in the face of what it was now.

He decided to take a look around the area as a whole, it had come from somewhere, it didn't just materialise between the walls. The back room of the town hall proved to be very interesting, Vergil found that the rear rooms led into a secret chamber below, a set of vaults that looked to store paperwork. In the centre however was a defined summoning circle. He knew it well enough, they themselves had used them and demons were able to break through.

Someone had thought it was a good idea to summon PJ, Vergil groaned and rolled his eyes. It was obvious from the corpse at the back of the room that they had only got so far. The corpse was discarded on the far wall, impaled onto a wall lightly and had been dead there long enough for the blood to have ceased dripping and turned to a sticky mess on the floor.

"Guess you got what you deserved." Vergil snorted as he leant over and took out the silver medallion hanging delicately from the neck. "And why pick PJ, he's one of the ones Dante would think "salvageable", if you're going to summon a true evil do your research about what happens when they hit the other side."

The little medallion offered a small clue, the strangely designed shining sun rose over the bow of a tree with a field. Vergil had seen many trinkets that hid cult meanings and this one looked very much like it was one. He pocketed the clue and then scuffed up the summoning ring so it could not be used again.

He had all he wanted from the Town Hall and it was time to make his way to the Mall. Vergil wasn't one for the mass crowds either so the idea of an abandoned shopping mall seemed good to him, no doubt Dante would have regaled him with some pointless tale of a movie where they all got locked in by demons or something but he was half-demon and that meant he considered himself in control, thank you very much!

He needed to get to the abandoned Toluca Mall and that proved to be a shorter trip than he had anticipated it to be. What he didn't like on the notes he'd made on the map, were the mention of various pet shops because if the people could be this mutated he hated to think what would have happened to the animals. Vergil muttered to himself, not that he cared for beasts, he just cared that he wasn't going to be eaten by something as stupid as a mutated gerbil.

By the time he'd passed the pet shops Vergil noticed the area had gone silent again, there was the same strange mist in the air but there was no usual sign of the remnants of life they had seen elsewhere around the place. Had PJ not venture up this far for a reason?


	8. Chapter 8

"Amusement park, how are you amusing?" Dante hopped over the fence and landed on the other side with ease and grace.

The whole place carried a rancid stench of decay and the acrid smell of water and rust. It was a very distinct air that felt and tasted irony, Dante looked around and sighed.

"Not exactly beautiful on the eye I agree." Came a voice from behind him, Dante span to face thin air. "Oh come now you're my masters' son and you know better."

Dante knew the voice, he couldn't place it exactly but it didn't bring him welcome family Kodak moments of memories. Then he rolled his eyes, it was Josh, one of his fathers little messengers. Josh was even more irritating on some levels, he hung around with a shape-shifting Demon called Tartaruchi, Tuc for short who preferred to sit on Josh's shoulder in a small imp form.

"Hello boss!" Tuc snickered as he appeared.

"Why are you both here?" Dante looked at them with mild disdain, they were his father's messengers and if Sparda were still asleep or at least locked up it might be worth finding out more from them anyway.

"Well we're hunting a missing demon." Josh smirked. "I guess the race is on isn't it because we both want little PJ."

"Is dad talking to you?" Dante levelled one of his guns, it pressed to Josh's forehead. He couldn't kill him but he could send him back downstairs.

"Well in as much as he said we have to come and intercept him leaving here without being sure it couldn't upset the natural balance." Josh looked at the gun, Dante was the bane of most demon's existences and he didn't want to suffer it either.

"Boss says that we have to make sure he doesn't bring this version of Silent Hill into the mortal world." Tuc added helpfully. "Or it's curtains for the people around it."

"So you're being sent to do the same job as me and Vergil?" Dante sighed. "Brilliant well you can get back home. There's enough of us already working on it."

"Are you kidding?" Josh snorted. "We've been allowed semi-topside. I'm off to play on a roller-coaster and eat the candy till we puke. See ya!" And with that the two were heading into the fairground.

"Why… why is my life one constant harassment after another." Dante muttered once they were out of sight.

He decided to poke around in the old haunted mansion, it was a particularly amusing place to him, why on earth anyone wanted to scare themselves rigid was beyond him. There was enough evil in the world if you looked around, so why waste time making fake versions of it. He sighed, most people were not Dante or Vergil. Most people didn't grow up around demons, fighting and pain.

The inside of the mansion surprised him; it had been cleaned up for a start. Instead of the ghastly cobwebs and fake rotten food with plastic dead dummies a sort of macabre party had been laid out. There were real bodies sat around, a mom, dad and two kids with party hats sat in front of a display birthday cake from around somewhere else in town.

"Okay…" Dante breathed the word out slowly and looked around. "PJ, I'm here to play party. Where's the ice-cream? You cannot have a party without strawberry sundae…"

When he got no answer Dante decided that it was good enough for him to know the demon was likely to come back to his play spot. He sat down on a spare chair, found a card and sat to writing out a note.

He left him an invitation, saying he would come back and play tomorrow. What Dante actually wanted at the moment was to lay eyes on him, to note whether or not he was actually full on evil demon or salvageable. He was hoping for the save part really, sometimes things had a habit of touching a raw nerve and this demon seemed to have been given a fairly shitty run of it already.

Leaving the card behind he picked up Pandora, threw her over his shoulder and wandered out just in time to see the roller-coaster swaying and groaning. Dante looked up, a small horde of demons had accumulated around the thing, the activity from the other two must have caught their eye but they didn't worry about Josh or Tuc, their salivating jaws were fixed on one prize, the son of Sparda.

He pulled out his own guns, dropped Pandora to the ground and got ready. The sword on his back was there in case anything got close but he planned to lay waste to them well before that.

A torrent of bullets filled the air, some of them striking into muscle and shredding through sinew. Dante listened to the systematic pump of the automatics chambers, the bullets twisting from the barrel and striking where he aimed. One thing Dante was good at, the guns were not just weapons they were an extension of him, he was dangerous and right now he was locked and loaded.

Josh sat with Tuc watching, they had a crude version of popcorn which consisted of catching bits of the flying corpses in a bucket. Josh wondered if the son of Sparda would ever get on with his father if he did wake up, but then again no one wanted him to really.

"He had to shoot that one three times…" Tuc muttered. "Someone's getting rusty."

Josh chuckled, as the last of the bits fell around them and Dante collected Pandora from the floor they gave him a round of applause. Ever grateful for an encouraging audience Dante turned, bowed and then headed back into the main town.


	9. Chapter 9

Nero wondered if the cemetery didn't just spell cheap horror film by it's very suggestion. Not that he was afraid more finding the trail a predictable wandering torment. It gave him time to think about him and Kyrie though, he sighed at that thought too. He loved her, he knew that but he also knew that she'd seen and been through enough for one lifetime.

The more he worried about her, the more distant he seemed to end up, and then she would get angry in response to that as well. Nero sighed, it was complicated enough when you considered the family background, then of course Dante had shown up and he had been confused for some time over that too. Now he just accepted that life was going to be one continuous stream of pain.

The gates to the cemetery would once have been secured, locked up at night to stop kids trespassing through, vandals kicking over headstones etc. Now they were hanging off, rusted by time, rain and the strange ash that coated most of the town of Silent Hill. Nero gave a soft sigh and slipped through the gates.

He pulled up his earphones and looked around, turned on the music and set to walking. Nero liked a decent tune running around in his head, he found that somehow it allowed him to distance from the fact he was killing, sure they were demons but wasn't he part demon?

Nero's own hand rested on his gun as he walked around, the thudding base in his ear meant he didn't have to worry about the Jurassic Park style footsteps, his hand would light up if it was demonic and if it was anything else and attacked he wasn't going to be afraid. He picked up a trail of blood along the main path and set to following it, he had an hour for each place but the Police Station hadn't taken him too long so he decided not to rush around.

He found the trail ended at a large mausoleum, the inhabitant named as H. Fuller, he marked on his little notes that it was in the Janus listed area of the cemetery and then looked around again. The cemetery itself didn't seem the match the one on the map, then again Nero wondered if anything really matched up anymore. He made a note they died 1883 and then tried to work out just how long the place had been empty. He gave up though, he would need a library and some time to do that.

The mausoleum had little of interest to offer, Nero was starting to convince himself not a lot would happen. It was that little bit that didn't happen that he probably should have been very glad for, from behind him even over the music he could hear metal on stone.

At first he thought it was a sword, perhaps Dante messing around but then he realised to be making noise over his tunes it had to be bigger than that. Nero turned around in time to come face to face with something he really wasn't sure how to describe.

The thing must have been about 8 foot tall, maybe... it was hard to judge since it had a giant metal pyramid covering the top half. Nero looked up and then knocked on the tin lid, the cleaver or whatever it had was dragging behind. Nero didn't have time to think about it, only to react as the sword came swinging around in a manner that he knew meant business.

Nero grabbed his sword as he leapt into the air, using a gravestone at the side to leap up and land on the top of the mausoleum, The creature swung the blade around and only second before where his feet had been the sword clashed into the gravestone and obliterated it.

Nero was no stranger to power and damn near death slices but this thing hadn't set his hand glowing. It didn't look like it should be able to move like it did and then it brought the sword over it's head ready to bring it down on the mausoleum, the descendent of Sparda leapt and landed on it's head, somersaulting and landing behind him with his hand revving the blade ready to go into combat.

The monstrous thing slammed through the concrete setting of the final resting place of , the concrete housing of his skeletal remains spewed open. The shattered bones and ash flew up into the air around the masonry and Nero brought his arm up in time to protect himself. He skidded back from the force of the door hitting him and rolled back into an open grave several feet behind.

Nero decided it wasn't worth trying to get cocky and kick ass without knowing what the thing was so he lay silently hoping that it would pass him by. Nero groaned internally, he was sure that despite it being a mental thing anyone in a million miles could have picked up on it. The creature was walking his way, bad enough he had to suffer the shit of it being around but if it could follow him he was in for a long night running.

"Get offs!" PJ was across the other side of the room, he yelled and then ran off into the distance.

The creature PJ didn't began to shuffle that way, Nero sat up from the grave just in time to see the giant lumbering muscles wrapped in bloodied leathers wandering down the path, He fell back into the mud and ash with a slight sigh of relief but why had the demon boy decided to try and help him? Or was he simply toying with him for later? He tried to text Dante on his mobile but there was no signal, figured, it's not like the human world really thought to put a Verizon mast on the forth level or a Vodafone one in the middle of the lakes of fire...

"Balls." Nero muttered before finally standing up to climb out of the grave. He smirked to himself as he imagined Dante fishing out a skull and badly reciting bits of Shakespeare, something's would never change. Nero could at least report back that PJ hadn't escaped him, he was still there and still watching.

He made his way back to the appointed rendezvous after putting his headphones back on but turning down the volume a little. Nero decided that he didn't really care much what happened as long as the power on his tunes kept going. He could almost forgive the fact he was now covered in a fairly messy set of dust, bone fragments, mud and slime now that he'd seen PJ hadn't just disappeared without a trace.

He wondered what they were supposed to do to help him anyway, if PJ didn't like them there and Vergil's assumptions about him being able to control aspects of the place wasn't it likely he could easily kill them off?

Still lost in his musings the younger of the three hunters wasn't really paying attention as he slid down into yet another grave. With a curse that would have reminded anyone that heard it of his demonic side he tried to scrabble up. It was then he realised that he'd put his boot into something very soft and squishy.

He looked down to the rotting body, puss and leaking fluids had come around his boot and if he hadn't got a very strong stomach he'd probably have been sick there and then. Nero pulled his foot free, with a horrid sucking noise before the final yank and he was out again. He was about to jump up when he spotted a shining medallion and picked it up, clearing off what he could of the blood and bile he spotted the same intricate design that Vergil had, only he didn't know that.

He pocketed it and picked up his weaponry before skipping through the cemetery, mincing a strange rotted half-dog thing and then seeing the sign for the hotel he knew he was probably going to end up regretting saying he'd come along.

"I really don't learn... Dante's trouble, why wouldn't the twins teaming up spell anything less than utter Chaos." He chuckled as he headed into the reception.


	10. Chapter 10

Vergil passed the pet store, looking around and then heard the noise of a clattering metal blade alongside footsteps in a hurry. Ignoring the target of his next destination he ran that way instead. PJ was running down the street at full speed, the Pyramid Headed creature was behind him.

What made Vergil stop and stare was the fact that PJ was running at full speed, the creature was walking yet still managed to keep a good pace. Vergil pulled Yamato to his side and sized up the opponent. Along the abandoned street the demon boy was running until he spotted the open butchers door, he skidded to a halt and ran inside.

Vergil decided to take chase, the demon was the only one they needed he was sure of it. Jumping over a metal fence nearby and into the same area he ran into the butchers following PJ closely. PJ wasn't sure if he was after him too, he looked like the guy from the theatre but his hair wasn't quite the same and he wore blue clothes but he didn't have time to stand and question it, that monster thingy that never died was hot on his tail!

The small shop, The Family Butcher, was only on one floor, they ran through and out into the back yard. Vergil noticed the corpses lying around the freezers and shuddered, surely by "Family" they just meant family business? And they said demons were evil? He caught sight of PJ ducking between the damaged wooden fence at the back and followed him. PJ only stopped when he thought he might be clear of the monster's trail, he had found he could outrun a fair few of them…

"Go way!" PJ looked at Vergil, his tail flipped around angrily.

"We need to talk to you," Vergil pulled out the amulet to show him, "I know you're one of Sparda's lieutenants."

"No way…" PJ backed up, this guy wasn't a monster he was another demon and by looking at him he had finally worked it out. They were Sparda's sons and if they wanted him it was bad news.

"PJ," Vergil sighed and stopped moving towards him, "this isn't the right place for you. You were summoned in, we're here to help you back outside."

"No way, I don't go backs down there not ever!" He backed up and into a large warehouse shutter making him jump again. "I would rather be here."

"You don't have to go back down to Hell," Vergil looked at him, "you can err… look my brother he lives on the surface world. The real one, this is like half-way, all the people are crazy and all the monsters are… um well I dunno yet but come on come back with me. You can't stay here, I mean, look at it, it's boring."

"It is pretty boring." PJ nodded after a short while, he looked around and sighed. "But how you get outs? I tried but the roads is blocked, demon warping only works if it's still in the place and that metal head man chase me. Oh! Robbie." PJ suddenly recalled he wanted him back.

Vergil was about to question the sudden declaration when PJ ran off down the street, had he have thought to follow fast enough he might well have evaded Pyramid's arrival behind him. The gigantic beast hadn't stopped to see if the shop would be inhabited and simply walked down the alley into the street where Vergil watched PJ running off. Just as he was about to take pursuit the gigantic beast, with sword left at the shop front, had come up behind him, grabbing Vergil by both arms and dragging him into the shop where only Yamato on the floor gave any clue to him having passed by.

Within moments the ash had settled and the place looked deadly silent once more. PJ ran off to get Robbie but by the time he came back to find Vergil he couldn't see anything at all. In a bit of a panic he moved towards the butchers shop slowly, he'd stood on something metallic and bent down, he had managed to find Yamato.

He picked up the sword and looked around; the man had said others were around so maybe he needed to find them too. He wasn't stupid; he knew that no one left a sword like that behind on a voluntary level only he couldn't be sure where they had gone. He hoped that the blue dressed guy wasn't in too much trouble as he really hadn't done anything to upset him, in fact he'd been one of the few that had tried to get him some answers.

He wandered around until he too spotted the meeting place that Dante was waiting outside in, he hadn't expected to need to talk to the man he still wasn't sure he liked but Vergil had been right, being here alone was getting pretty darned boring.

Nero had decided that following his attempts to get on top of things and then ending up covered in more filth he would get back too, Nero came over to see Dante measuring up how to break in. Nero rolled his eyes, walked past him and tried the obvious of pushing on the metal bar around the rotating doorway, and came into the reception.

"Oh," Dante gave a fake cough, "I knew that."

"Oh really?" Nero snickered as they looked around the room. "You know Dante, I really will be glad to get out of here."

"Yeah, I think I have to finally agree that a hot bath and movie are in order." He put Pandora down on the table and looked around. "Man how we gonna pin this thing down? The three of us could be chasing him for years!"

"Yeah good point." Nero picked up another set of the maps, his arm was glowing a little. "Think Vergil is on his way back." He looked over at him. "Can I ask you sommat about him?"

"If you must," Dante shrugged, "but I am not that often polite about him."

"I get you two fighting and all the history that you put down and laid out for me, I get you came together to annihilate the treat yada yada but," his eyes were soft as he looked at him, "has he changed?"

"No." Dante folded his arms and looked at him. "Leopards don't change spots, Vergil's just worked out if he paints everything the same colour it can fool some people till it rains."

Just as he said both of them heard the door going, expecting Vergil to be the new arrival it came as a shock to both of them that PJ was stood in the foyer with them, and even more concerning than that the realisation he had Vergil's sword in his hand.


	11. Chapter 11

PJ looked at the two men, and then spotted Dante considering picking up the box on the side. He looked at them both, his tail flipping around behind him and threw the sword towards Nero. Nero caught it and nodded his thanks.

"Where's my brother?" Dante looked at him, he was getting tired of the games the Town seemed to want them to play.

"I comes here cos I thought he be here." PJ kept his distance, that man was far too trigger-happy.

"He's not here; we were all taking points in the town to find you. PJ do you know where he was last?" Nero elbowed Dante in the ribs, now was not the time to argue with someone that could help wrap this up quickly.

"In the meat shop." PJ shrugged.

"Okay you lead on we'll try and…" Dante heard a noise behind him, the shuffling came from the corridor behind the double doors to the kitchen. "Nero keep an eye." He headed through to take a look.

Dante had seen and fought many things, he didn't think a lot would truly effect him but for some reason this one managed to get into the core of his soul. Perhaps it was the fact they were children turned to monsters, perhaps the fact they looked to be twins much like Vergil and himself… or maybe he was tired.

Dante didn't get to learn the history of the children until later on but the twins were Miriam and Billy Locane. The two were the only ones of a serial killer in the town that were brought back as a monster and not a lingering ghost. Billy was killed by a single blow with an axe to his head but Miriam suffered a far worse fate. Miriam was brutally dismembered before her heart was removed and as the twins moved together towards Dante he stumbled back a pace.

There were no legs, instead distended arms kept the creature walking in an unnatural way, it was clear that it would need to come up close to attack and normally that would be simple case of blowing it apart with his babies but instead he found himself staring blankly as it shuffled up towards him. Just as it was about to take a swipe across his face a gunshot sounded, Nero pushed him to one side and bloodied brain matter and rotten tissue splattered up the walls.

The head of Miriam was the one that didn't survive but once the body was injured the head of Billy set to sobbing like a child. Dante backed up, his eyes widened as he listened. The dream from the night that had started this bloody adventure flooding to him as he heard his brother's screams for help.

Nero popped two more bullets into Billy and looked around, the room went silent, even PJ didn't know what to respond with. It was at this point PJ burst into tears, the childish mind of the demon boy was starting to kick in, Nero moved swiftly into action and sat him back down in the reception.

"Dante!" He yelled until the older man snapped around, paying attention to the facts and quickly composing himself. It was one thing to let Trish see him in a bit of a mess but this was going to ruin his street cred!

PJ stopped crying pretty quickly as it appeared Nero's sardonic nature pulled them all back into line. The young man had more sensible balance than the two brothers, accepting that his demonic blood could save people without resorting to hell-bent power trips like Vergil or complete hatred of it like Dante could show at times.

"I sorry!" PJ hiccupped out his panicked apology.

"No I am kiddo." Dante leant over and looked at him. "Me and my bro, we were separated on our eighth birthday, we're twins. Vergil's the older one, boring, educated and what not. Me I am the cool one, but we were super close before he went all mental. Anyways that kinda shocked me, I mean… I just thought that it could have been… us."

"Oh." PJ looked at him. It seemed serious enough that Dante would tell him that, perhaps they weren't all that scary after all, well not to him.

"Anyways," Dante stood up again, it was not in his nature to mope around, "I'd like to find him, if anyone's gonna wipe him off the planet it should be me."

"He said you helps me out…" PJ followed along with them as they walked out into the street, then he spotted the wound on Nero. "Is no heals?"

"I dunno why, normally I recover from most things." Nero put his hand over it, black and red sticky clotted blood came off on his fingers. "Gross! Dante…"

Dante looked back at it, the wound looked raw and rotting on his pale skin, he pulled the hood back and looked at it more. Dante could smell the rot, it was getting really freaking dangerous now if their wounds wouldn't heal. Nero looked at him, the Order's young hunter relied on Dante to know pretty much everything and Dante didn't want to disappoint.

"What do I do if we don't get out of here?"

"Hope you don't die?" Dante shrugged, he wasn't the best at staying serious. "You'll be fine ya little punk, just come on. Need to get my brother and get the damned hell out of here."

"I finds your brother!" PJ leapt in front of them. "Then we get out. I want out… he's right this place boring."

"Well can't fault him on that one." Nero muttered under his breath.

They moved out into the street, the hotel might have had the word Grand on the front but it really lacked that inside. Dante looked around, it was getting dark and they would need to get Vergil and get out. Running about the streets at night wouldn't be too much of an issue but they could more easily get split up and he didn't want that at all.


	12. Chapter 12

Vergil opened his eyes slowly; the first thing he noted was that there was no way he was in a natural position. One eye was closed over where he'd been repeatedly smacked around the side of his head, blood had congealed over the already bruised socket and his head was ringing with a constant noise, a noise he eventually worked out were large air sirens in the distance.

"Well this is shit." He mumbled to himself, looking around he worked out he was held up by large chains, at first he assumed they were rusty then he realized it was blood, dried blood from previous prisoners.

Vergil took a deep breath, he was by no means a coward, in fact he'd literally been through hell and back but that didn't mean he would trivialize his situations. Surveying the room he had to wonder what the strange creature was that overpowered them so easily.

"I made several fatal flaws in my initial attempts to find my mother." A voice came from behind him, Vergil's head snapped up to look around. "Firstly I had assumed the Order was correct in their teachings, I have since learned that they were blind to the real power…"

"Who are you?" Vergil's voice was still demanding despite the situation.

"Oh don't be foolish Vergil," the voice purred, "I will explain and then you will listen."

"Great can you monologue elsewhere? I need a nap." Vergil snapped sounding more like his brother, with his smart-ass nature.

""By the 21 Sacraments, the Holy Mother shall appear in the countries of the world and shall bring salvation to the sinful ones." The voice recited the words from the Bible the strange Order in Silent Hill had passed to him as a child. "I thought… I thought it meant the mortal plane but then I realized the most potent souls I could offer would be those of demons."

"What!" Vergil looked over, he had utterly miscalculated the entire thing and now they were trapped because of him. It would have been better to leave PJ there after all….

"So my first act were the killings of course, I needed 21 sacrifices. I picked them all out, I worked diligently and then," he stepped into view, "I, Walter Sullivan, realized that I needed the blood of the very best of sinners. Now what better could I ask for then Dante and Vergil, the twin sons of the devil himself?"

"Ah… bollocks." Vergil muttered, PJ had been a ploy to get them there.

"I didn't expect my ritual to cleanse your little fellow of his demonic worth but I suppose that is an added bonus. As a shape-shifter he will be forced into the image of my mother and," Walter gave an almost childlike smile, "be my penultimate charge in the ritual."

Vergil looked at Walter Sullivan through one open eye. Long blond and dirty tresses hung limply down his face, he was probably in his 30's at least, much like Dante and Vergil were, as much as anyone could tell. Nero was younger, he had to mix the two for a comparison and he came up with his guess based on that. He was wearing a long overcoat that stank like a hobo, then again Vergil didn't much notice that as the problem in these parts, it was the murdering psycho nut-job attitude that bothered him more.

Vergil looked around the room, it was a hideous mess and he was sure they were locked in an apartment basement or something but he couldn't be sure. On the floor he could see that there were various old buckets with rotted organs, shriveled up skin, bones were piled up in the corner where previous experiments had taken place.

Walter Sullivan hadn't been a focal point into his reading, and now he was cursing that very fact. He had nothing to use against the man that held him, he had no idea if his brother would find him and then he realized that potentially it could be worse if he did. Vergil tried to pull at the binds but found much the same as their initial problem in the locked room he was bound by physical constraints.

"I too found it most intriguing," Walter watched as Vergil's muscles worked against the binds, "that Silent Hill unlike other places I have been is the gateway to so many potentials. Here no matter what you are it seems you still have to abide by certain rules…"

Vergil's eyes lit up red, his devil trigger was screaming out to go nuclear but even when he did transform he had no further way to escape. The demonic form let out a yell of frustration; as soon as the energy was spent he was left hanging limply, sweating and panting. Vergil was beginning to feel the panic of his incarceration.

When a large metallic clunk occurred he looked up for the first time, it was then Vergil realised unless his brother or Nero got there in time… he was likely going to hell for good. They were trapped in a lighthouse, the light on top had started up, as it did so it dislodged dirt, dust and other debris down over the strung up captive.

Vergil saw the problem he was facing, all of the various murders the man had committed had been fused together. A hideously large harpy looking thing had been built from various bones and muscles, the missing parts were suddenly explained to his prisoner. The hearts he had been collecting were all infused in the chest of the monster and Vergil had to wonder how a human could envision his "mother" would be that…

"You know… I suddenly think my life is quite normal." Vergil uttered and closed his eyes. He hated to admit it but his little brother really was the key to him surviving.


	13. Chapter 13

The small troop of rag-tag demon bloods were slowly searching the city, Nero had insisted they look into the library, perhaps with some clues about the history of the place they would find ideas about where to look. Dante hated the idea, PJ followed saying yes to both of them as he clutched his pink rabbit and Nero ended up winning the fight for once.

Nero broke in and slid through the door, Dante and PJ followed and then found somewhere to sit down and wait. Dante ended up searching around the various floors until he found a vending machine, plugging it in seemed a bit pointless so he just elbowed the front glass, the cans of soda's and various munchies fell through. Not bothering to worry about date of expiry he grabbed a chocolate bar and tucked in.

Nero looked up the various places in Silent Hill, he read up on murders, strange activity and then looked into noted characters. The one that came to mind was Walter Sullivan, he had been arrested the same day as Nero's Birthday, June 18th for a series of murders. Nero looked at the various places they had been, the fact that the man was obsessed with Silent Hill's Order and began to plot a map out.

Dante meantime returned and threw the various munchies over, PJ sniffed the packet, licked it and then finally ate it without worrying about the wrapped. Dante chuckled, the kid really was a blank slate.

"This guy was a proper head-case…" Nero looked down the lists. "Alongside quite a few of them. There's listed records of murders, missing people, some woman who seems to lead a cult that's caused a fair whack of it, she might need to be found."

"I see this man." PJ pointed at Walter, his tail went limp. "I follows him, he goes around and there is peoples killed in places. He talked to me make me come heres."

"He summoned you?" Dante looked over, it was starting to sound more engaging, they had a lead!

"Yeah, I sees him. Didn't likes him though. He wasn't gonna let me has Robbie but I got him anyways."

Nero rolled his eyes, the demons rudimentary language was driving him nuts. He looked down the list of known victims. Jimmy Stone at Wish House, Bobby Randolph and Sein Martin who were killed the same time and dumped in a river. Steve Garland, a pet shop owner in the town, Rick Albert who had a sports store…

He stopped a moment at a guy named George Rosten, a quick check showed that he was likely the one that educated him on the sacraments that Walter was mentioning in notes where they had spoken to him, he had been likely killed by the information he had provided. Nero shuddered and read on…

The two twins were listed and he explained about them to Dante, how Miriam had suffered worse than her brother in the end. PJ was listening the entire time clutching on to the rabbit, his eyes wide. And this wasn't even hell itself! Nero carried on with the watch store owner, a bar tender celebrating his birthday called Eric Walsh who had tried to shut up early following the news of the pet store owners killer being at large. Walsh went home and Sullivan was there waiting!

"The Eleventh of his twenty one victims had been listed as Walter himself, presumably committing suicide after he had been arrested and placed in prison. It's said he was buried in an unmarked grave at Wish House," Nero looked at Dante who rolled his eyes, great twice that nutjob orphanage had been mentioned now, "after the next string which were thought copycats at first they went to exhume the grave only to find nothing there."

Nero carried on down the news reports, the journalist's sensationalism grew with each one of course, and the hysteria that would have come with it would no doubt have given yet more energy to the strange town.

Peter Walls was a drug addict that had been beaten to death, claiming he could see god. Toby Archbolt was a priest of the Holy Mother Sect of the Order, again they operated at Wish House and Archbolt tried to use previous deaths to elevate his own station in the order. During a trip to Mexico he was pushed off a cliff by Sullivan, his was the only death mentioned outside of the USA.

Shreiber was the next; he was a private investigator who did an exposé on Wish House whilst investigating the murders. Apparently he was trapped into his apartment and escaped via a mysterious hole in the wall, his body had never been found and he was the 15th victim.

Cynthia was the first woman mentioned outside of Miriam, the crime scene for her was very graphic, blood all over and the mark 16/21 carved brutally into her chest meant it was clear why she was murdered. Jasper Gein, a mentally unbalanced kid with a love of the mythology of the Order succumbed when investigating Wish House. Sullivan immolated the boy and whilst bathed in flames Gein carved 17/21 into his chest. Dante shuddered, this was all very gruesome when he took into account they were human lives.

18th on the list was Andrew DeSalvo, an abusive guard at Wish House who used the Water Prison there to punish children. He was locked into his own cell and shortly after his escape was drowned. Last on the list of victims was Richard Braintree, who lived near Walter's obsession, a flat numbered 302 that was where he was sure his mother was all along. Richard lived at 207 in the Ashfield Heights complex, a place that was also mentioned several times, spotting the strange events he tried to escape but was still caught by the madman.

"So Ashfield Heights and Wish House are the places to try I guess." Dante stood up. "Nice history lesson… so how the hell's this place so fucked up?"

"No idea. It seems from reports though that the reason for the ash could be an underground mine… there's basically a fire running through it and the town ended up evacuated but some people say that's just the official story to get this weird ass place off the map." Nero picked up a few more books as they passed, in truth whilst he was in pain and tired the story itself was pretty interesting.

"I know where they is."

"Are, PJ it is I know where they are." Nero looked at him. "We're going to have to help you with that once you get out."

"If…" Dante muttered and looked around. "Right I am gonna get us a car sorted."

PJ watched as Dante looked along the streets at several cars, some were missing windows, tyres etc and others were too far rusted. He settled on an old but reliable looking Mustang and set to breaking in, as far as he could tell the police were not likely to arrest him as they were dead.

"Dante…" Nero came up alongside him, he stopped him a second. "You understand that currently we are playing right into this nutjobs hands?"

"Yeah." Dante looked at him. "But if my brother is gonna be number 20… I am making damned sure I am there with him."

"I will never understand you two."

"You don't have too." Dante slide into the front seat. "We were close as kids, mom died… that was the end of it. Now if one of us is going down it's up to the other to be there. Even if it is just to check the final score."

Nero slide into the passenger seat with a sigh, PJ got in the back and curled up with Robbie. The talk sounded far more serious than he liked and then when Dante skidded off at full speed he decided that these weird travelling beasts were definitely not to his liking either!


	14. Chapter 14

Vergil's arms were aching from being suspended, the light was slowly revolving around and he wondered if Dante even knew where they were? Years ago if this had been his brother he'd have longed to be the one stood where Walter was but he'd climbed through hell and survived. Things changed, he'd changed.

He wasn't aware of Walter moving around, preparing him for "surgery". The demon's heart could be taken from his chest, Walter knew he could survive it, they were able to withstand most things and yet at the same time he would get to hear those delicious screams. They were screams he heard in his nightmares as a child, when the Wish House Orphanage fell silent at night Walter's dreams never did.

Dante in the meantime was touring the city in the car, Nero used to the erratic top speed of his friend hadn't worried, but PJ had been shaking. The cars usually didn't move and he had only seen old video's he'd found where they did. Eventually he realised that despite being chucked around like a rag-doll he was in no danger and relaxed.

Dante swung into the old orphanage, or what he found were the ruins of Wish House. Nero looked at the old burnt wood and the charcoal on the floor. The place wasn't covered in the white burning ash as it was too far out from the main area of the town. Instead there was an eerie silence where natural wildlife should have taken hold and reclaimed the falling man-made constructions.

PJ slid out from the rear of the vehicle and looked around, he kept fairly close to Nero as he had already recognised that Dante was the one more likely to destroy an area than his younger counterpart. PJ watched as Dante picked his way through the rubble, through a rusted and half-burnt wheelchair, he gasped because Dante didn't appear to have spotted a half fused section of torso on it. Such things had befallen the town that bodies of the dead had been left as they fell, no one was there to cater to the basics any more.

"There…" PJ pointed to the lake, they were on the outskirts of the city, they hadn't spotted the blocked up tunnel that led them towards that route from the main part of the town. "There is noise out there."

"I can't hear it PJ." Nero looked at him. "What kind of noise? Like animals or something like that?"

"No…" PJ looked at him, "wait there." He jumped up a little higher on a stone wall and Nero chuckled as he suddenly changed shape. PJ shifted into a hybrid of the dogs he had seen alongside some of the demonic qualities to enhance his hearing. He listened to the noise, the strange methodical clunking as something large went around and around in the distance. "Is like big whir." He looked at Nero, unable to fathom the words for it.

"Like as in um…" Nero was trying to work it out, and at the same time was fixated on the strange beast he'd transformed into.

"It's called the Lighthouse." Dante looked over. "How the hell is it working if there's no one around?"

"You didn't think to ask that about any of the power in this town before?" Nero scoffed.

"Is power station!" PJ changed back into his more rounded humanoid shape and dropped to the floor. "I see it, makes big noise then power come up. Is like on thing where it goes at right times."

"Automatic." Nero tried to help him out.

"Well I can't see anything more here. I can't work out what to do and Vergil ain't showing up which suggests I gotta find him." Dante opened the car door. "What is the other side of that lake then PJ?"

"Oh I know!" PJ jumped up happy to have been asked something by him. "Is more houses on building blocks, lighthousey!" He looked at them. "Is scary too… room on one is for Walter. I don't like Walter." PJ muttered the last bit. "Like I no like man with strange head."

"This place… is weirding me out more and more." Nero looked at them both. "Right let's go that way. Apartments or Lighthouse?"

"I say Lighthouse, if we can get up in that thing and up to look around there might even be a view over this fog." Dante waited until they were in and then sped up again. They took the lakeside road and headed around the apartments. Several times he dodged a strange walking creature, one of the dogs ran out and he ran over it not stopping to check if it was alive or dead. "Hey Nero how close you gotta be for your arm glowing trick?"

"Usually fairly close Dante, but the other thing is it may not work. I mean it didn't on PJ." He didn't want to sound like he was being obstructive but he hadn't got a clue and didn't fancy giving him false hope.

They parked the car at the edge of the lane to the Lighthouse. It was eerily untouched by the fog and ash, there was a soft sound as water lapped against the building and the stones around its base. Had it been a beach with surf, women and a bar then Dante would have been the happiest thing alive but it was rank, smelled like rotten fish and seaweed and altogether… shite.

PJ jumped down from the car again, looking at the building. He'd liked it a lot before he bumped into Pyramid Head on the way back. Clearly the beastly thing roamed around but once he saw it he would avoid that place for a few days, he didn't like it because he couldn't make eye contact to work out what it was, or if it was intelligent.

Nero looked up as the beam went around, the large clunking of the internal machinery continued to drown out the inside movement. They walked up the path and booted footsteps were met with the slightly ajar doorway of the old lighthouse. Dante had liked the concept of them when he was a kid but now the damned thing here just looked creepy.

Nero opened the door and was met with the rather grand sight of half-crucified Vergil on the far side of the room. Dante went to plough past him to get to his brother but it was PJ that stopped him, grabbing his hand and looking at him with intelligent eyes despite the language barrier.

"He in there too." He warned him. "He might not hears you yet… but maybe he set trap."

"He has a point D," Nero whispered, "don't rush in just yet. I know it usually pays off but this might kill your brother."


	15. Chapter 15

**Nero:** _"What…? I thought this meant a lot to you...?"_  
><strong>Dante:<strong> _"That's the only kind of gift worth giving. I want to entrust it to you, and so I am. What you do from here is your call."_

"I can't just stand out here." Dante's hand slipped down towards a gun.

"But you also cannot go in ill-prepared." Nero warned him whilst looking at the prone figure inside the building. "PJ is quite right there, he's been here longer than us too so he knows the way this warped hell-hole works."

"I am from hell," Dante snarled, "I don't get to forget that very often. I already gave away his blade I don't intend to give away his life." And with that his patience was gone.

Dante burst through the doors, both guns out and looked around for Walter, Walter who had anticipated him arriving had already devised a way to capture him. Nero wisely hadn't rushed in behind him, but heard the familiar reign of bullets that came from Dante's guns.

The bullets didn't get as far as Walter, Vergil weakly wanted to yell at his brother for being an idiot but didn't get chance. Dante had unloaded a full round which hit an unseen barrier and bounced back, instead of taking down Walter all he succeeded in doing was getting the lead back in his face.

For a moment he was stunned and that was all Walter Sullivan needed, he threw a switch and a large iron cage came down trapping the son of Sparda neatly into place. Dante tried to use his devil trigger to break out, relying on the overpowered strength, speed and regenerative attributes but all he succeeded in doing was exhausting his body faster.

"PJ…" Nero dragged him back down the path. "We have to do something. You mentioned that scary thing with the weird head, I've seen it. We need to lead it here, maybe it can do what we can't."

"I don't like it.." PJ looked at him, fat watery eyes looked at him, his tail was limp and he looked down. "I am a sucky demons I be scared."

"Nah it's just not something you're probably used to, that nobhead's managed to wipe half your true memories and really I guess some would say that's a good thing. Now… where is it usually?"

"I sees it at Cemetery, at hotels and sometimes on streets. It been near a meat shop too." PJ looked at him not entirely happy with the suggestion of seeing it face to face. "No let it near me please…"

"We're gonna play tag across the town until we can get him here…" Nero looked at him. "If you wanna stay here then you do that but I am gonna go try this."

PJ nodded, he followed him and then as they ran off towards the town the younger demon shape-shifted into one of the sleeker looking animals and ran off. Nero grumbled, he would have taken the car but it wasn't safe, that sword looked like it would easily take the thing apart and he wasn't going to be happy stuck inside it.

Nero made his way to the Grand Hotel, the place had resonated evil to him from the start. Making his way through there to the butchers on the corner he hoped that PJ didn't get to be the one that faced him. Nero jogged through the ash filled ruins of Silent Hill, pulling his music up to keep him company once more.

It was sheer chance that he bumped into the thing when he did, passing back through the cemetery where he had spotted it before. Passing by the cemetery he followed a newly bloodied trail until he rounded the corner to an old scrap yard.

The beastly monster had one of the strange looking dogs and was in the process of dragging it over the cluttered yard. The skin was being caught by metal shards on the ground and weeping wounds caused it to make an ungodly noise every time it was snagged. Nero turned the music up and then pulling out his own personal gun, Blue Rose, he aimed and fired.

The metallic caged head slowly came around, Nero set to leading it on the pathway back through to the lighthouse. Nero hoped he would be able to get back to the building before it ran out of speed or interest in him. Pyramid Head lumbered on towards the new object of annoyance, Nero shot at him a couple of times to make the thing more determined.

Nero was a little freaked out by the solid yet speedy walk of the thing. It showed absolutely no signs of slowing down and as he rounded the pathway to the lighthouse he saw PJ running that way too with a batch of the strange dogs that he'd found in lieu of the main attraction.

PJ skidded to a halt on the pathway and changed into a flying bat-like creature leaving Nero to the mob, the oncoming mob that now showed no signs of slowing down. The ghastly dogs ran faster but Pyramid Head's sword cleaved several with one swipe. Nero managed to get out of it in time but lost a lock of his white hair to the tip of the metal blade.

"Holy…. Shit." He muttered as he ducked another large swipe and backed up towards the lighthouse door, the screech as the light on the top whirred around, illuminating the fog and very little else served as a gruesome backdrop to Nero's last attempt to get away.

The door was open and Vergil looked up through the haze of pain to see the strange lumbering beast. Nero made a brief prayer and flung out his devil bringer, the ghostly arm extended to the support above the door allowing him to leap free of the oncoming monster.

Pyramid Head didn't much care about the target disappearing, instead the framed metal of the door creaked and groaned as it continued it's way inside. Dragging the horrendous sword behind it the creature walked into the room in the lighthouse, blindly swinging the sword Nero winced as it slashed across Vergil's midriff, but also through the cage that Dante had been caught in.

Walter Sullivan used the chaos of the creature to try and escape, using the side entrance he ran towards the jetty at the back to get the boat he'd been using. PJ however was ready and waiting. On the little wooden seat of the small jet propelled boat sat the pink rabbit, Robbie.

Walter looked around, the idea of his beautiful creation being torn asunder had sent him into a wild frenzy. When PJ dropped down he grabbed the demon's horns and screamed. The result was to cause the young demon to panic and try to back away from the horrid noise in his ears.

Walter got the precious moments he needed and flew into the boat as PJ was pushed by brute force into the murky water. The rabbit clattered down the side into the water with him and Walter made his timely escape.


	16. Chapter 16

"PJ!" Nero ran towards the boat and jetty, spotting Robbie about to sink. He grabbed at the ears of the ragged teddy and managed to pull it up but he hadn't caught PJ in time. Nero yelled for him and dived into the water trying to get to him, he didn't even know if he could swim.

Meanwhile inside Dante ran over to Vergil, his brother was out for the count, intestines and blood dribbled around the lower part of his torso. With the mess of Nero's un-healing wound and this mess he was starting to feel downtrodden. Then he heard the scraping of the sword from Pyramid Head and shuddered, he only just got to his weaponry in time and blocked the impeding blade from taking off his arm.

"You're pissing me off now." Dante growled, kicking it back and into the side of the lighthouse. The creature fell against the metal stairs and collided with a part of the cage Dante had previously been trapped in. Fortunately he hadn't been allowed to get out of shape with the demons in his life and the fight that broke out was not completely one sided.

The creature was, as Nero had previously found, faster than it's original looks indicated. Dante's sword met with it's mid swing, the sheer strength of the creature took him back but Dante didn't get time to become worried. Twice he hit the metallic helmet causing a ring in his ears making him step back but on both occasions he was able to use that to get chance to duck behind the stairs and stun it as the sword caught into the metal steps.

By the fourth round of drawing it into the vulnerable position he was able to recover enough to get his guns and offload them into flesh. When it did collapse he didn't waste time checking on the body, instead he grabbed his brother and the wooden beam he was attached too, and ran outside, slamming the metal door behind him and finally taking a breath.

"Oh fuck me..." Dante collapsed to his knees, lowering Vergil to the ground. "Vergil... you better not be dead." He hastily tried to cover the loosened innards so that he could move him without snagging anything.

Nero grabbed at the first thing he came into contact with, fortunately it was the little chap they had grown used to making company with. PJ tried to fight him, it was instinctive but Nero had been trained by the Order and had earned his combat stripes. The younger demon flailed pointlessly as he was dragged up to the waters surface and finally both of them reached the side of the waters edge.

"Dante!" Nero scrambled up the bank, with PJ following, they needed to get Vergil to safety. They needed to do it before all of them became too tired or injured to survive another night. "The hospital is back in the main town, we need a car or... we need to get back!"

PJ looked at all of them, he sat down in the mud and rubbed at the sore parts of his skull where the bastard had nearly ripped his horns out. Dante took a deep breath and then shrugged out of his familiar red coat, undoing Vergil from the binds he was able to cover him up and use his coat to keep the wounds a little cleaner.

"Nero, we need to burn down that thing, whatever it was the thing with those hearts and gross crap, all of it. If not he can still use us." Dante stood up shakily.

"Let me sort that. Get moving into the town. PJ," he walked over and helped him up to his feet, "I need you to go with them. You gotta stay safe or he will come after us all and he can use you as much as anyone else in this mess. Understand?"

"But you is sick too..." PJ pointed at the wound, it was leaking with foul-smelling black puss. "You needs it fixed."

Nero stopped a moment and sighed, they were all in trouble. He nodded, he knew that but he also knew Walter was hardly a push over. He was worse than any demon or devil, he was a crazed man. He was unstable, misguided but with it he held a great intelligence. Underestimating him would be their biggest fault right now.

"Okay revision, keep guard."

"I do that." PJ nodded and came over to the brothers. "Vergil be okay. You can fix this." He looked at him. "I help you at the heal place."

"Okay kid." Dante nodded. "Wait... how can you do that?"

"I got healy hands!" He wiggled his fingers. "For demon only though."

"You only just thought to mention this?" Dante looked at him, trying not to yell abusively.

"You shoot at me. Why would I tell you?" He folded his arms, his tail flipped around behind him.

"Okay, okay good point." Dante sighed and stood up. "Hospital, you help and then we get the hell out of Dodge."

"No, kill Walter." PJ looked at him, angrily. "He do this to us."

Dante looked at him, the blue eyes were soft orbs, he understood the anger but he wasn't sure cold blooded murder was quite his thing. His hand touched the demon's horn lightly, PJ winced but didn't move. One hour later they were limping into the town with the remnants of the creature in the lighthouse burning behind them.


	17. Chapter 17

Fortunately the dogs and weird creatures that came with their travels were all easy enough for them to take down. They found their way into the hospital and having searched a few rooms came to one that seemed clean enough to at least lay him on.

"I can't believe we're helping him after all the trouble's he put you through." Nero looked at Dante.

"You of all people should understand." Dante muttered under his breath but said little more of it past that.

They took their time to remove what they could of dirt and other materials. Had Vergil been a human he would not have survived. The wound around the midriff was the one they had to secure somehow and PJ came back with bandages and a couple of old bottles of distilled water.

"Hey," Nero softly smiled to him, "how have you learnt all this?"

"Oh I watch the TV's here, there is show I like so I learn by watch."

"See told you TV wasn't so bad." Dante told him as they each worked on putting the outsides back to insides. "Now what are your healy hands you little punk?"

"Is okay when all in I show you yes?"

"Please, cos we're running out of options here." Dante sighed softly. "If you want Walter dead we need a good plan, cos for once I am accepting just blasting the hell out of things is not working."

PJ spent the rest of their day trying to sort out the wounds. He worked on Nero first and then left Dante to sit with him as he cleaned up Vergil, coming from hell the demon had little concept of gore and blood being off-putting, just like the others he had seen enough to be utterly nonplussed by it but he had to admit that the smell wasn't so pleasant.

Vergil's body was ruined, PJ sighed, his language skills made him sound like a complete idiot but it was one thing he really wasn't. After several hours he had put Vergil's body back in place but that was just the start, he had to work out how to physically put him to rights but it was no mean feat.

Later that evening he came through, already exhausted but not daring to sleep until Vergil was up and running again they sat quietly. Outside they began to hear heavy rain. For some reason the lights in the hospital never faltered like they had everywhere else. PJ looked at Dante who shrugged, perhaps the old man was finally giving them a much needed break. Somehow it didn't really feel like that though, it was more like the calm before a more enormous storm, you know? The type to wipe out half a city in one go.

Dante was the first to slip into a sleep, a sleep so deep and engrossing that he had no concept nearly two days had passed when he finally stirred. PJ had ended up curled up like a small dog against Nero, Dante's eyes slowly opened to see Vergil standing in front of him. To his side was Yamato, blood dripping down the blade, Vergil flicked the blood off and knelt in front of his brother.

"I just bumped into two really weird looking nurses who nearly scalpelled my eyes out." Vergil complained. "I left you sleeping after I woke up, whatever the lad did he managed to sort out my wounds. Nero's even looks better, I think we're in a position to try and extract him."

Dante nodded, at least they were healed up which meant they could move around again. His only problem now was Walter, PJ wasn't likely to want to search around for an exit without capping the moron that had dragged them into the problem. Outside the heavy sounds of the rain continued, Vergil looked at Dante and chuckled.

"It's genuine water, at first I thought it was going to be blood or something but it was just water. Outside there's no sign of the strange creatures and if it wasn't for the ash falling all day and night I would say it might even be daylight."

"You know there's signs this place used to be pretty good..." Dante stood up. "Cinema's, diner, mall, amusement park, lake and lighthouse. Maybe it was just too perfect for some people."

"Sounds like somewhere Mom would have liked." Vergil said quietly.

The conversation after that was made null and void as PJ and Nero came around, unawares of the conversation they took a moment to be reorientated. PJ ran over and checked Vergil for any further signs of wounds but seemed satisfied after a rudimentary check. Vergil made a pretend show of annoyance but was silently glad for his aid.

"Right take out Walter, fine exit..." Vergil checked they all had weapons to hand. "PJ do you need a sword or anything?"

PJ shrugged, he was his own weapon, as a full demon he could summon what he wanted so he just followed them around. He also didn't want to explain that really he wasn't so great at combat, they had all seemed far more practised. If a fight broke out his money was still on the guy with a big mouth and red coat.

"Walter is a human right?" Dante looked at them.

"I don't think so... I suspect that he was a human but remember this place is an oddity." Nero pointed out. "It's been like a giant puzzle all over the place so something we do will affect him. I don't see that just shooting him or cutting his head off is the way to do it."

"There will be something we can do." Vergil headed out with them, they needed to get back to the original summoning area. Perhaps Walter would be waiting for them, it was so obvious that his options would become limited now they were back up and running, so-to-speak.


	18. Chapter 18

The main hall they went to was exactly as it had been left, including the blood splatter. Vergil looked around, there were no signs however of movement or of anyone moving the body they had seen in there before. Vergil searched around determined to check that he had covered every aspect of the building for more clues.

Nero stood next to PJ, he wanted to be sure the demon was safe, Dante was a hunter but he didn't pop off innocent souls. In his mind if a demon had a shred of good they were as close to human as anyone else.

Dante was more impatient and took to searching the room they were in, he leant annoyed on the side of a shelf and it came clattering down beside him. Nero was about to say something when a box slid to the floor and the lid came off. Inside was a human body part, it took a few moments to realise it was an umbilical chord.

"People keep the weirdest shit." Nero looked at Dante.

"Ya telling me." Dante put the box on the desk at the back of the room thinking nothing more of it.

Vergil found a basement level, headed into it and looked around. He groaned internally as he spotted the remnants of two or three corpses, probably prior victims he had tested his workings on. The other thing he found in the centre of the room was what looked to be another version of the cage he had been trapped in. He smirked, okay so if they couldn't kill him they could surely trap him.

"Nero!" Vergil yelled, he trusted the younger hunter to understand faster than Dante. Nero always seemed to be a little more fly, not that Dante was any kind of idiot. "Nero come and see this."

Nero mumbled, he left PJ with Dante and slid into the bottom of the Town Hall area. He looked around at the scattered corpse parts, then at the strange cage device. He didn't think Walter would be stupid enough to fall into a trap of his own making but he could see the potential in luring him to it.

"He isn't gonna fall in it like Dante did." Nero smirked.

"Then we will just have to push him." Vergil nodded. "But I think we could easily arrange it."

"Well if four of us being what we are cannot, we deserve to be stuck here." Nero shrugged. "Guess it's time to let Dante send out some party invitations on and go find him."

They made the plan to ensure that the area was used as a running ground, the large contraption was something they could move with a bit of effort. Moving it would put him off guard and hopefully give them what they needed. They couldn't move it too far or there would be a sign of their plans so they shifted it into a room one forwards from the original and then took some time to cover their tracks.

"Here!" PJ pointed at the window, Walter's familiar shape was stood at between the open gates and with determination the man walked towards the entrance. Nero pulled PJ back towards him, motioning him to stay silent.

Dante was bait, that much they had worked out, Walter moved slowly but with intent to the doors and opened them into the long corridor. It was silent, eerie and yet it did not bother him. Walter was used to the solitude of the town of Silent Hill and his mind was too broken to recognise any flaws in it.

Nero and PJ stood away from the scene, Dante backed up as if he were nervous of meeting the stranger a second time. Vergil meanwhile had Yamato to hand and was stood behind the entryway of the door into their trap. Walter looked at Dante, his face seemed calm and serene, he opened his arms and smiles assuredly to the son of Sparda.

Dante was confused, he had never been met with that kind of gesture, even by the looniest of hells inhabitants. Walter then moved his way and Dante snapped back around to his current situation. This was the bastard that had killed those two kids, turned them into freaks and nearly killed both him and his brother. He fired a shot and ran, Walter took after him but was still walking. The freak was in no mood to run and Dante cursed, this was going to take far too long...

Dante fired to more shots, backing up towards the room they had set up. Walter seemed to be amused by the fact, of course he assumed the red coated one would walk directly into the trap. That would only leave Vergil and then it was merely a matter of finalising the wastage by removing PJ oh and that other irritating white haired one. Walter stepped forwards, his pace a little faster this time. Dante internally breathed a sigh of relief, this might happen sometime within the same century!

Walter moved in with him, they were all getting close to their goal and that's when Walter spotted Vergil and ran. Dante took flight after him back towards the entrance but it was PJ that acted quicker than he did. PJ landed in front of the doorway cutting him off and Nero used the chance to cut off the final doorway, the only option was for Walter to fight through the three of them or run back the other way towards Vergil.

Walter took the sensible option, he would attempt to bypass Vergil and not take on three others. The dirty blond hair whipped past Dante as he did so. Nero gave PJ a quick assuring smile; he had made the right move. They kept the exits covered as Walter ran through into the room and right past Vergil into the trap.

This was a fight the twins were up for, both of them moved in towards him, the strange contraption looked like a spherical ride from a fair or something. It snapped around him and Walter laughed, the machine detatched from the frame and Dante looked at Vergil.

"Seriously?" Vergil muttered bringing his sword up. "Find a way to stop him moving!"

"I prefer remote control cars." Dante quipped leaping behind the thing and starting to run along pushing at panels and buttons randomly.

Walter's machinery had spiked into his flesh, contorting and twisting around him until it resembled a grotesque imitation of Sparda's knightly form. It stopped Vergil for a second; the imagery was freakish and twisted just as any creature of hell but the subject of its cheap imitation seemed too well planned out.

Dante stopped his searching to look at it too and their pause gave the man his opening for attack. PJ and Nero tried to run in to assist but the door slammed shut, attempts to break in were forgotten as the whole area began flooding, flooding with Blood! Nero yelled to the twins they had to hurry up and began trying to break down the door.


	19. Chapter 19

The yell snapped them both out of their semi trance and back into the fight, Dante threw Ebony towards his brother. Much as Vergil disliked them it enabled him to keep fighting at range, he aimed and fired, between them they could afford to keep taking shots.

Walter span around, a rusted large iron bar became the make shift sword. Dante ducked in time to avoid being smashed around the head. Vergil was forced backwards and down into the pit there the strange machine once sat in its entirety. He fired another shot which let stray against the metal bar with a ringing that set his teeth off but it also stopped Walter dead in his tracks.

The ringing in their ears was nothing compared to the whole system vibrating like a giant tuning fork. Walter yelled in pain, and Vergil took the opportunity to get up from the pit. Dante went back to searching for something to shut down the system but it was futile, whatever was powering it seemed to be housed within the fusion.

"Shoot the metal not him," Vergil threw Ebony back to his brother, "you stun it I will will try and find an in to get him down."

"Check." Dante pulled Ivory up and looked at her sight, with the right preparation he was able to stun him once more.

Vergil leapt in whilst he was stunned, Yamato sang as the sword struck against metal, it was chipping away at the shell. He had to avoid Walter as they fought around him, and trust that his gun happy twin would do as needed. Then Dante looked over at Vergil, he had spotted something else.

He took one last shot, it stunned Walter and Vergil ran the sword through. As Walter's body was finally impaled down the beautiful blade the contraption began to come apart. Walter's eyes widened in surprise and then Dante leant forward, for a moment Vergil lost sight of his brothers' expression behind the white bangs then as he came back to his vision he spotted a smirk.

"Not like you to be happy over a death." Vergil moved the sword back, flicked off the blood and looked at Dante.

Dante snorted and headed out, leaving his brother mildly confused. PJ and Nero stood out in the corridor watching the blood drain down and trying to help each other clean up. Vergil had to chuckle at the sight of the two younger men trying to worry about their appearance given the terrible mess they were in overall.

"Dust up fairies we're moving out." Dante chuckled as he moved past them. "PJ what do you wanna do now?"

"I would like to come home with you." He stood near Nero and smiled his tail going like a happy puppy.

"You understand that you will have to learn the human rules? To be a human not like you were in hell."

"Yes sir." PJ nodded, he had seen enough from them to understand the kindness they offered and want more of that feeling.

"Another Brady Bunch application." Vergil snorted, half-ribbing his brothers efforts but really deep down he understood it better than he had previously.

"Yes." Nero laughed.

They stood around the circle and Vergil replaced the missing pieces using the last of Walter's freely flowing blood. As good measure the older son of Sparda also kicked the body further into the pit before heading out to the others and then with a deep sigh he closed his eyes and concentrated on the ritual chanting to return them to their rightful place.

The DMC was still in once piece, Trish was just taking the last of the details from Lady over the phone in regards to Vergil when the four of them walked in. Without a word she put the phone down Lady and looked them all.

"Well you all look like shit." She snorted and then her eyes fell to PJ.

PJ hid a little behind Nero, and then realised Nero was trying to shrink behind Dante. Dante looked fed up, he'd been through the wars and she was about to get her nag-nag-nag on. Vergil simply laughed and patted his brother on his back.

"Some days it does pay to be me little brother."

"Well if you are so rich you can order the damned pizza." Dante grinned as he headed up to get a shower and wash away the troubles.


End file.
